Point-Of-Sale (POS) devices often include a variety of integrated devices, such as scanners, scales, integrated scanners with scales, card readers with on-screen signature capabilities, and the like.
Some scanners come equipped with both a laser and a camera. This permits a cashier or customer to scan a barcode from two different directions. Generally, the laser operates to detect a bar code that is moved across its line of sight, which is flush with the checkout counter. The camera operates to detect a bar code that is facing the camera and away from the laser. These composite scanners have a variety of buttons and options that the cashier or a service engineer can access for purposes of configuring the scanners and/or adjusting settings on the scanners. This is a cumbersome process and requires the cashier to know what buttons to press on the scanner and in what order or sequence to achieve a desired setting. In addition, POS devices with both a laser and a scanner are more expensive.
In fact, imaging scanners have advantages over laser scanners in that they can read two-dimensional (2D) symbols and are actually better at detecting some poor quality one-dimensional (1D) tags. However, to date imaging scanners are still relatively expensive when compared to laser scanners. This is largely due to the fact that scanners with cameras require multiple cameras (more than one) in order to view multiple sides of an object being scanned, which is a requirement for bioptic scanning.
Therefore, there is a need to improve scanners equipped with multiple cameras or scanners that include both a laser and one or more cameras.